Garrett Gilchrist wrote:There's a rather nice 11-CD set of Bonzo Dog (Doo Dah) Band material now up at a Bay of Pirates. Not my work; I'm
downloading it now.

Hello Garrett,

When searching for Bonzo video's I came across your wonderful site. You have really great stuff here! The Talking Pictures upgrades look nice.

Let me introduce myself. I used to be known as BeatleV (Vincent) on Demonoid and I am the person who compiled the "Doo-Dah For Now" boxset that by the looks of it has found its way to Pirate Bay.
Great to see you've found it interesting enough to download it. Hope you enjoy it as well. I still do myself. I am a huge Bonzo/Viv Stanshall fan and the whole project started with a one-CD compilation with Viv's unreleased work. He did so much great stuff that was never released on CD or brought together one way or another and I really wanted to have that all together so I made it myself.
Due to the nice comments it received, I decided to do sort of the same with rare Bonzo's and other solo stuff and suddenly the project was 11 CD's :-).

I really had a great time compiling it, restoring tracks, editing the complete Peter & The Wolf album to a 7 minute Viv only version. BTW: As I have found quite a few upgrades a revision is in the works, although this will take a while. Also I was cautiously thinking of perhaps doing a DVD based on the fifth CD of the boxset "Look At Me I'm Wonderful" that has the soundtracks from TV shows in which they appeared. The only problem is that my PC is not really up to for video-editing so at the moment its a really cumbersome process. If you have any ideas don't hesitate to tell me :-)

Good to hear from you, Vincent - always good to talk to another Bonzo Dog fan and archivist (and I'm guessing a Beatle archivist as well).

Viv did so much amazing work in his later days that hasn't gotten a lot of play, and does need some sort of organization to push it out in front of people. I did try to do that a bit in my second Talking Pictures disc.

Do you have the third "Talking Pictures" disc with Jazz Bilzen and Exploding Sausage?

I really would like to do a properly remastered Bonzo compilation, but I am waiting for PAL conversions of some material still. It makes a big difference as you can see with the Do Not Adjust Your Set material.

I was impressed by the scope of your collection though I was just grabbing it to find certain rarities I'd lost track of otherwise. I didn't go through it carefully, but I might to grab stuff if ever I do a proper Bonzo edit!

The biggest compilation of Neil Innes rarities were originally compiled by Andrew Warrilow at NISA, now retired, and the Viv rarities by Jonathan Street at SHARE, who may be still around.

BTW: Did you know that because of the Bonzo boxset someone contacted me and said he had the audio of a late-1968 Bonzo performance in Bellevue Theatre in Amsterdam that was recorded for television? And do you have it?

I think the recording you're referring to included "Blue Suede Shoes."

I'm not sure if it's the same recording, but as I noted a few posts before this, there is some existing film of the Bonzos performing "Blue Suede Shoes," as well as "Canyons Of Your Mind," "Cool Brittania" and "Swanee." It was recorded on March 14, 1968, and runs 5 minutes, 54 seconds total. This footage is held by the footage house Reelin' In the Years. I believe it's briefly excerpted without sound in the Canyons Of His Mind Vivian Stanshall documentary - some black and white footage, shot from a distance, of a sweaty-looking Viv in a gold jacket, and shirtless Larry. It doesn't look like a particularly good piece of film.

Also, years ago there was a Dutch produced television series "Single Luck" an half an hour program about one-hit wonders. One episode was dedicated to the Bonzo's (guess which song :)) and they showed stuff that I have never seen before or after and all in outstanding (broadcast) quality. I don't think it's too far fetched to assume that there is a lot of never seen Bonzo material in the Dutch television archives. Problem is how to get it.

Sounds very interesting, according to Google and at least one fan recorded it at the time. Please be more specific about anything you recall from this. It's left very little trace on Google.

A few times I came across IBOR collections but never a good sounding one and/or as MP3's instead of lossless files. As I can't collect everything, I usually skip the baddies from my harddisk. What I've seen of IBOR is on the Talking Pictures DVD's and I can't remember it ever being broadcast in The Netherlands. It's one of the few holes in my music collection so you'll understand that I am really interested in a good compilation but I am not in a hurry.

Very high quality rips of The Innes Book of Records series 3 were posted to The Pirate Bay; they may still be seeded. The second disc is a restoration by myself based on Youtube footage mostly.

I am huge fan of Smile, I saw Bri and the Wondermints at the Pepsi Stage in Amsterdam and it was absolutely gobsmacking. Definitely in my top 3 best concerts EVER and I saw hundreds (my other two faves are Bob Dylan in Rotterdam and New Order in Amsterdam). What exactly is the Smile 3971 edit? I've never heard of it.

My Smile 3971 edit is most definitely still seeded at The Pirate Bay.

The Python's are also one of my favorites. I love the first two BC series (I still watch them every now and then) and most of the movies and albums are great. I am a real British comedy fan from a very early age on. I think I saw the Pythons on Dutch television when I about 15 or 16 and I was hooked instantly.

I have Jazz Bilzen and Exploding Sausage but I must admit that I haven't seen both for a few years or so and if I'm not mistaken and what I can remember is they are not the best quality. Doesn't one have a counter and isn't the other dark and dirty. Recently I have found quite a nice sharp copy of Sausage (by the looks of it from a 16 mm print). But its in dire need of color restoration/correction. I dabbled a bit with it myself but the software I use is far too limited.

The only Exploding Sausage copy out there was put out there by me, with many thanks to the film's director David Korr. It's not in the best shape and also I prepared an entirely new recut of the film when I put it out, which I intend to revise at some point in PAL with improved quality generally.

Jazz Bilzen is in DVD quality at this point, and looks great, since it's been broadcast on TV.

About Readymades: if it is indeed from New Tricks I have to get a proper rip of this CD because this version is the very first one EVER in glorious STEREO, all the others are in mono.

The remixes of various tracks on New Tricks all sound clear and excellent. The CD is highly recommended.

I forgot to ask: do you have any idea on how to get the mono's of Gorilla and Doughnut. One of the Equestrian Statue videos on TP has an original mono mix as its soundtraclk (actually it sound more like a rough mono mix, some edits are clearly audible). Compared to the stereo the ending of this mono mix is completely different (and better in my book) so very interesting to have

Some of the versions on Talking Pictures, such as the Pathe Documentary version, are pretty high quality.

Yours seems to be a different show. My recording has no Swanee, no Canyons and no Cool Britannia. The date must be quite accurate because the TV show was aired in Januari and the presenter refers to the recording as being "made last month". I also believe the recording is either the full show at Bellevue or it was edited before broadcast. The offline audio recording doesn't seem to have any gaps or other anomalies inbetween the songs so it must have been captured in one go on tape.

Here is Rockaliser Baby from the Bellevue show (backing tape + live vocals):
*Edit: link removed, see next post below for links of the full show

The below text was already partly written for the upgrade of the boxset. CD 5 will be expanded with these recordings.

Nine songs from a recently surfaced, never before circulated recording kindly shared by a fellow Demonoid member. These tracks are sourced from an audio-tape recorded offline from television in January 1969 during a one-off broadcast of an unscheduled, unknown TV-show aired by Dutch broadcaster KRO. The scheduled show 'Disco Duel' a Dutch adaption of 'Juke Box Jury', was cancelled at the last minute due to a lack of available acts and as a replacement they aired this show. Prerecorded in December 1968 at the Bellevue Theatre in Amsterdam, the Bonzo's performed in front of a live audience. Herman Stok, host of 'Disco Duel' explains during the introduction of this replacement why the scheduled show was cancelled and introduces the band as having a hit record in England with 'I'm The Urban Spaceman'. Despite the age of the source tape and the way it was recorded, these recordings sound amazingly well. Besides some re-EQ-ing, all tracks from were altered to the right speed as the original source tape ran way too fast.
*Edit: Herman Stok mentions "De bouwshow" or something like that in the intro. Maybe this is the title of the show during this was broadcast.

Last september I had the honor to speak to the grand old man of Dutch youth television Herman Stok personally, he's nearly 90 but in good health. I asked him if he knew something about the show but he couldn't remember one bit so that was bad luck :). There's no info in the Dutch TV archive datebase about the show. It is probably videoed in b/w and not filmed (It's my guess that the band was too unknown for such an expensive production). If it was indeed videoed it is probably wiped as were many shows from that era.

About "Single Luck" I taped every episode myself and if I still have it should be excellent quality but I lost a whole bunch of video's after my cellar flooded a few years ago so I put them in storage since and if that tape survived then I'll have it probably next weekend (my storage is a bit out of the way). If its lost I could try to get it from the producer. About 10 years ago I worked with them on a project and maybe there's still someone around who's willing to help me out. The program was cancelled after 2 or 3 seasons mostly for being too expensive to produce.

Last edited by BeatleV on Sun Jan 26, 2014 12:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Garrett Gilchrist wrote:Good to hear from you, Vincent - always good to talk to another Bonzo Dog fan and archivist (and I'm guessing a Beatle archivist as well).

Viv did so much amazing work in his later days that hasn't gotten a lot of play, and does need some sort of organization to push it out in front of people. I did try to do that a bit in my second Talking Pictures disc.

I think you did an amazing job with both discs. Especially the original color promo's and the rushes are wonderful to watch. I have seen some the upgrades of the DNAYS performances and they look absolutely great. I really can't wait for the Mk 3 version of the set and hope you can find the time to make them.

Garrett Gilchrist wrote:Do you have the third "Talking Pictures" disc with Jazz Bilzen and Exploding Sausage

I only have the first version, at the moment the upgrade disc is downloading from the Bay. Very curious how it looks.

Garrett Gilchrist wrote:I really would like to do a properly remastered Bonzo compilation, but I am waiting for PAL conversions of some material still. It makes a big difference as you can see with the Do Not Adjust Your Set material.

Yes indeed. What really will become a problem in case of restoration is that all recent broadcasts of Bonzo material is in 16:9 aspect (i.e. top and bottom of the picture cut off) and that's a shame because I think people would prefer the original 4:3 aspect ratio.

Garrett Gilchrist wrote:I was impressed by the scope of your collection though I was just grabbing it to find certain rarities I'd lost track of otherwise. I didn't go through it carefully, but I might to grab stuff if ever I do a proper Bonzo edit!

No problem and if it ain't on the box just tell me what you need and I will try to fix it for you. I am still looking for some material for the upgrade/revision of the boxset. Especially everything mono (Gorilla and Doughnut), the 30 secs longer single edit of "You Done My Brain In" (it doesn't matter if its bad quality), the instrumental single version of "Rawlinson End" and some post-Bonzo stuff like the BBC session of Freaks, the World's mono single, Neil's b-side "Fluff of the Needle" and "Legs" Springtime For Hitler single. No need to have the real deal, just a good lossless vinyl rip is perfectly fine and a bit of crackling is no problem.

Garrett Gilchrist wrote:
there is some existing film of the Bonzos performing "Blue Suede Shoes," as well as "Canyons Of Your Mind," "Cool Brittania" and "Swanee." It was recorded on March 14, 1968, and runs 5 minutes, 54 seconds total. This footage is held by the footage house Reelin' In the Years. I believe it's briefly excerpted without sound in the Canyons Of His Mind Vivian Stanshall documentary - some black and white footage, shot from a distance, of a sweaty-looking Viv in a gold jacket, and shirtless Larry. It doesn't look like a particularly good piece of film.

And also:

Garrett Gilchrist wrote:There's about six minutes of footage of the Bonzos performing Blue Suede Shoes and other material which we don't have, which was very briefly excerpted (without sound) in the Canyons of His Mind documentary - shot from a distance. They didn't use sound so I'm assuming the footage isn't great.

If above songs are from the same show as the short b/w footage you put in "Room with a View" on TP, then these songs were filmed on 11th August 1969 at the ninth Jazz And Blues Festival at Plumpton near Lewes, Sussex. Pictures on the net with the band in the same set-up, clothes etc point to the Getty Images database where both date and location are sourced from.
See this link:http://www.gettyimages.nl/detail/nieuws ... os/3302683

*Edit: Where does the March 1968 date after the title comes from? Is that date what the database of reelinintheyears.com states?

In my opinion the footage on TP isn't too bad, rather nice actually and Viv's performance is quite dynamic :).

Last edited by BeatleV on Fri Feb 07, 2014 7:53 pm, edited 2 times in total.